Tai Mo Shan is the highest peak in Hong Kong, with an elevation of. It is also the tallest coastal peak in Southern China and second tallest coastal peak in China after Mount Lao, and located at approximately the geographical centre of the New Territories. The Tai Mo Shan Country Park covers an area of around Tai Mo Shan. It is located to the north of Tai Lam Country Park. The Long Falls is the highest waterfall in Hong Kong.
Tai Mo Shan is an inactive volcano dating from the Jurassicperiod. A small hill known as "Kwun Yam Shan" near the mountain still vents warm air though cracks in the rocks that lead all the way to the mantle. The holes that exhale warm air are known as "hot pots". When the surface temperature is cold, and the warmth of the expelled air is clearly discernible, this phenomenon is referred to by locals as "dragon's breath". If the air temperature at the summit is 6 degrees Celsius, then the air emerging from the interior of Kwun Yum Shan is somewhere between 13 and 21 degrees Celsius. These "hot pots" are remnants of the active volcano's superheated steam vents. The area's volcanic rocks are mainly coarse ash crystal tuff.
In the past, Tai Mo Shan was famous for a type of green tea, called mist or cloud tea, which grew wild on the mountain side. Occasionally, local people can still be seen picking the tea shoots for brewing green tea. More than 1,500 species of plants have been recorded in Tai Mo Shan including 27 species of native wild orchids, the protected Chinese Lily which mostly grows on the east side of the Mountain, 24 species of native ferns, including tree ferns, of which a total of only 4 tree ferns species have been recorded around the entire mountain, 19 species of native grasses, and 7 species of native bamboos. Camellia sinensis var. waldenae are also found on the mountain. A few types of wild orchids also grow in the streams of Tai Mo Shan including the Chinese pholidota orchid, Hong Kong's most common orchid, and the bamboo orchid, so called because of a distinct stem that looks like bamboo, which also grows in the streams of Tai Mo Shan. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II, most of the trees in the park were cut down and extensive reforestation was carried out after the war. Trees that were planted are mostly non-native such as Pinus massoniana, Acacia confusa, Lophostemon confertus, and paper bark tree. The area has now become one of the major forest plantations in Hong Kong.
In 1986, a 34-hour blaze destroyed 282,500 trees at Shing Mun and Tai Mo Shan and ravaged 7.40 km² of countryside.
Access
It is rather easy to hike to the peak as there is a road all the way at a comfortable gradient. Visitors cannot access the highest point on Tai Mo Shan, as it is occupied by a Hong Kong Observatoryweather radar station. It was reported in July 2014 that the station additionally houses facilities of the People's Liberation Army.
